MEXICO: Toward Spending

Mexico's government owns a statist 40% of the
nation's enterprises, and its cautiously conservative aim under the
administration of President Adolfo Lopez Mateos is "to develop
Mexico as fast as noninflationary investment will permit." Lopez
Mateos trimmed spending last year to pay off debts left by his
predecessor, kept the peso strong at 8¢, kept the cost-of-living
increase down to an insignificant 1.2% (U.S. increase: 1.8%). But gross
national product, which grew a booming 5% in 1958, climbed only
4%barely enough to keep ahead of the annual 3% population jump. Now...